EPA awards UMass Amherst nearly $6.4 million to help shrink the steel industry’s carbon footprint
The researchers aim to make greenhouse gas data more transparent, trustworthy and available
AMHERST, Mass. – The building and construction industry accounts for 37% of global greenhouse emissions—and the steel production process can be a significant contributor to these emissions. To steer the industry in a new direction, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has been selected to lead a $6.37 million five-year grant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“We’re trying to recalibrate the industry,” says Kara Peterman, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMass Amherst and lead researcher on the project. “What can we do in these 5 years of EPA funding to propel us 50 years in the future? We are trying to transform an industry, not make temporary or incremental change.”
Currently, the environmental impact of construction materials is described in a document called an environmental product declaration (EPD). EPDs describe the whole lifecycle of the product, including energy requirements, greenhouse gas emissions and the ultimate carbon footprint.
However, there are several limitations to this process. “EPDs are costly to make—as a result, we only have a handful of steel makers with EPDs,” says Peterman. She also adds that EPDs vary widely in detail and quality, and there’s inherent distrust across the construction materials industry as to where the data supporting these EPDs come from. Altogether, this creates a transparency issue in the industry.
“The ultimate goal is more and better EPDs,” she says. “There are thousands of steel makers in the United States and we want to expand access to data and software so that every single one of them can have an EPD.”
With this $6.37 million grant, Peterman’s team will create a free EPD generator tool. She also wants to establish industry trust in EPDs with a national database of these reports so that there can be an industry standard to measure against.
Another key aspect of this project is retraining industry professionals. “We need to train engineers to use EPDs, and to recognize what makes a product less energy-intensive than another,” she says. “We need to train steelmakers how to use our tool once we create it. We need to build trust in our industry and across all construction industries by being completely transparent with our data.” At the student level, she sees a reimagining of the current steel curriculum to focus on carbon emissions instead of pure cost or time savings.
“I’m thrilled to be working closely with the American Institute of Steel Construction and the American Iron and Steel Institute, in addition to the 20 different steel and sustainable construction organizations who are supporting the work,” says Peterman. “We’re demonstrating that we have the access to reach every corner of the industry. We have a broad base of support and that will be the key to our success.”
This is part of nearly $160 million in grants from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, aimed at supporting the renewal of American manufacturing by helping businesses produce low-carbon materials.
Cracking the code of hydrogen embrittlement
Researchers zero in on the underlying mechanism that causes alloys to crack when exposed to hydrogen-rich environments, like water
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
When deciding what material to use for infrastructure projects, metals are often selected for their durability. However, if placed in a hydrogen-rich environment, like water, metals can become brittle and fail. Since the mid-19th century, this phenomenon, known as hydrogen embrittlement, has puzzled researchers with its unpredictable nature. Now, a study published in Science Advances brings us a step closer to predicting it with confidence.
The work is led by Dr. Mengying Liu from Washington and Lee University in collaboration with researchers at Texas A&M University. The team investigated formation of cracks in initially flawless, crack-free samples of a nickel-base alloy (Inconel 725), which is primarily known for its strength and corrosion resistance. There are currently several working hypotheses that attempt to explain hydrogen embrittlement. The results of this study show that one of the more well-known hypotheses — hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) — is not applicable in the case of this alloy.
Plasticity, or irreversible deformation, is not uniform throughout a material, but is instead localized to certain points. HELP hypothesizes that cracks initiate at the points with the highest localized plasticity.
“As far as I know, ours is the first study that actually looks in real time to see where cracks initiate — and isn't at locations of highest localized plasticity,” said co-author Dr. Michael J. Demkowicz, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University and Liu’s PhD advisor. “Our study tracks both the localized plasticity and the crack initiation locations in real time.”
Tracking crack initiation in real time is crucial. When examining a sample after a crack has appeared, the hydrogen has already escaped from the material, making it impossible to understand the mechanism that led to the damage.
“Hydrogen easily escapes from metals, so you can’t figure out what it does to embrittle a metal by examining specimens after they’ve been tested. You have to look while you’re testing,” said Demkowicz.
This study helps to lay the groundwork for better predictions of hydrogen embrittlement. In the future, hydrogen may replace fossil fuels as a clean energy source. If this change occurs, all of the infrastructure currently used to store and use fossil fuels would become susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. Predicting embrittlement is crucial for preventing unexpected failures, making a future hydrogen economy possible.
The experiments for this study, as well as the preliminary data analysis, were conducted at Texas A&M, with Liu providing further data analysis and manuscript preparation at Washington and Lee. This paper is co-authored by Liu, Demkowicz and Texas A&M doctoral student Lai Jiang.
By Alyssa Schaechinger, Texas A&M University Engineering
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JOURNAL
Science Advances
ARTICLE TITLE
Role of slip in hydrogen-assisted crack initiation in Ni-based alloy 725
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
17-Jul-2024
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